The Pit: A Romance
by Mikauzoran
Summary: Hakuba and Kid are injured and buried alive. Believing they're going to die, they share regrets, fears, dreams, secrets, and even a little saliva, supplying each other with enough blackmail material to bury the other again if they do manage to make it out alive.


Mikau: Hello everybody! Good to see you again/nice to meet you! Thanks so much for taking the time to give my newest fic a read. The concept for the story was inspired in part by the shower stalls of my dorm which are about two and a half feet by three feet. It's enough to make you feel claustrophobic. Seriously, the shower in my apartment in Japan was bigger. One of the scenes towards the end of the movie Homeward Bound was also very influential. I always cried when Shadow and Chance were trapped in the pit and Shadow couldn't get out. Anyway, I'm rambling. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd pick more exciting ending themes. The opening themes are always so energetic and action-filled. They get me really pumped up, but then the closing themes are always so chill. They make me sleepy. I always wonder why they pick such relaxing, calm songs for the closing.

…

The Pit: A Romance

It had happened in an instant.

Before they even knew they were falling, the floorboards of the dilapidated basement had snapped beneath them, sending them both tumbling down almost twenty feet, a jumble of limbs as they collided with each other and the earthen sides of the pit.

In Kaito's opinion, the landing was the worst part.

Not only did the sudden stop hurt like hell, a shower of rubble rained down upon them, putting the icing on the cake of pain that they had been served.

Kaito counted his blessings—at least he hadn't snapped his neck.

His arm, however, was broken. His dominant left arm, damn it all.

"Tantei-san?" he called out in Kid's voice, narrowing his eyes in hopes that they'd adjust to the darkness faster. "Tantei-san?"

"_Screw this,"_ the impatient thief thought, digging out his penlight and using it to scan the pit for any sign of the detective.

What he found was not pretty.

Hakuba Saguru was out of commission with a badly broken leg (bleeding a great deal more than it should, and was that a bone sticking out? No. No it wasn't. Just a piece of debris that had impaled the leg) and a nasty bump to the head that was sheading its share of blood too.

Kaito pulled out scarves, doing his best to stem the bleeding without touching the protruding debris.

Once he'd done what he could, he took in his surroundings better. The floor of the old house, the foundation and the surrounding floorboards, had all caved in on itself. They were buried alive in a strange hole under the basement of an abandoned building on the edge of town.

"Tantei-san!" Kaito tried again, gently shaking the detective's shoulder. He was glad that the adrenaline pumping through his body was blocking out most of the pain from his arm.

The blonde slowly started to come around, hissing in pain as he became lucid.

"Tantei-san, don't move. You're hurt," he instructed his classmate in Kid's voice.

"I can bloody well tell that I'm hurt, thank you. The pain was a great clue." Apparently the situation wasn't as dire as Kaito had originally feared—the Brit was feeling well enough to be snarky.

But then Hakuba caught sight of the metal rod sticking up out of his leg, and his face went as white as rice powder. "Sweet Mary, mother of God," he breathed in English. "That…looks bad…"

"Stay calm, Detective. Try not to move it," Kaito advised. He'd studied a little first aid, and he'd gotten a crash course once he'd started getting shot; he seemed to remember that you kept impaled objects in place and stabilized. They often functioned as a cork to plug the wound, and removing them could cause the patient to bleed out.

"R-R-Right," the younger teen stuttered, looking like he was about to pass out.

"Are you in a lot of pain? Does it hurt anywhere besides the leg?" Kaito did a quick scan of his rival's body. Other than the minor head wound and glaring leg injury, the Englishman looked fine.

"It's a dull pain, really. I think I'm in shock. I need a shock blanket—one of those obnoxious ones that they try to force on you when a building blows up and they take you to the ambulance to treat minor scrapes and burns. They always try to give you a blanket. I need one now."

Kaito was beginning to wonder if the British git had hit his head. "Detective, deep breaths. Look at me. I need you to focus, okay?"

Hakuba slowly turned his head to look at the Kid and blinked.

"Okay?"

Hakuba nodded.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Kaito asked slowly, as if speaking to a child. "Any broken bones or bumps or bruises or pain or anything?"

Hakuba shook his head, but then stopped. "My head hurts. What the deuce happened?"

Kaito sighed and shrugged, wincing when it hurt his arm. "I stuck around after the heist, so did you, you spotted me, you chased me, I ran into this building, we fell down a hole." Kaito looked up and sighed again. "I think we're buried in here." He shone his little pen light up above them. "You can see how the boards fell in and got stuck in the sides of the walls, and then dirt and debris and stuff piled on top of it…. I can't see any light coming in from up there, so…I think we may be trapped down here."

Best case scenario, the boards gave way, falling on top of them and crushing them to death. Painful, but quick. Worst case scenario, they slowly suffocated to death. Slow, slow, slow…

"You're kidding me," the blonde chuckled hysterically. "I'm going to suffocate to death at the bottom of this hellhole with you? Great. Wonderful. I suppose that's only if I don't bleed out first!" Hakuba began to cry softly, and the raw vulnerability really struck Kaito.

He'd only ever seen his classmate as an annoying, stuck up rich kid with a cute butt. This weak, fragile side to the detective was…unexpected…very interesting.

"Calm down, Tantei-san," Kaito tried, desperate to comfort his companion and hopefully get his logical, resourceful rival back. "Don't count us out yet. Let's think about this, okay?"

Hakuba licked his lips, nodding. "What do you have on you? I don't have anything other than my phone."

Kaito pulled out his phone, not really caring that the sleuth could possibly note that Kuroba Kaito and the Kaitou Kid had the same one. "I don't have any service." He stood, slowly waving the device around like a light saber, trying to get a signal. "Can I see yours?"

"It's dying," the other teen sighed, but handed his mobile over anyway. "Maybe five minutes of use left."

"May I use it?" Kaito went ahead and asked permission.

"By all means," Hakuba mumbled, resting his head against the wall of dirt with a defeated sigh. "Don't even worry about me checking my call log to find out your affiliates' information. Just get us out of here, Kuroba, please." The younger boy winced, tears beginning to flow again.

It looked like the cause was pain this time.

Kaito pulled out the pain meds and handed them over. "No one gets hurt, Hakuba…no one but me…and no one dies unless Tantei-kun shows up with his weirdo death homing beacon. We're going to get out of this alive. I promise you, and I don't break my promises."

The golden-eyed boy smiled softly at the kind gesture. "You can't promise that, Kuroba, but thank you regardless."

Kaito sighed, not even bothering to deny it as he set about texting and calling anyone and everyone that could possibly come to their aid. He couldn't get ahold of anyone, and then the battery died.

Kaito nodded, sitting back down, careful of how he moved his broken appendage. "I guess now we wait to be rescued. I'm sure someone will get the message eventually…. How are you holding up, Detective?"

"Never better," Hakuba snorted. "I was going to suggest that you try to climb up and better assess the 'buried alive?' situation, but…you're injured as well, aren't you?"

"Yeah," the proud thief admitted. "But…I could still try it."

"No, don't. You'll just do more damage than good, and a magician's hands are his livelihood. You're more likely to survive this than I am, and I don't want you messing up your future career…. Besides, aren't you in pain?"

"A great deal," Kaito replied as his arm throbbed. "…however, I have a very high pain tolerance. Hakuba, don't give up. Someone's going to come for us, so keep fighting, okay?"

The detective snorted softly. "So…what tools and supplies do you have on you?"

Kaito blinked and began to empty his pockets. "Not much, unfortunately. Some scarves, pain killers, flash bombs, smoke bombs, sleep gas…nothing really useful at a time like this."

"We can use the sleep gas later," Hakuba mumbled, forming contingency plans. "If we are indeed buried and the air starts to get thin, we can knock ourselves out so that we go in our sleep."

"Don't be so negative," Kaito growled, wishing they weren't both injured so that he could throttle his pessimistic pit-mate. "We're going to make it."

The blonde shook his head. "I appreciate your sugar-coating approach, but…we'll most likely die. You might make it, but I'm a goner. Logic tells me so, and logic is hardly ever wrong."

"You forget that I don't do logic," Kaito bit back. "I don't care if you fake it, but get positive right now, or I'm going to annoy you to death before you even get the chance to bleed out or suffocate."

This elicited a little chuckle from the detective. "Fine. I'll try my best to pretend to have an optimistic outlook on things, if you do this one thing for me."

"Hm?" Kaito raised an eyebrow at his companion.

"I honestly do think that I'm going to die here, and I'd much rather die with Kuroba Kaito than the Kaitou Kid. I don't care if you want to pretend to just be pretending to be Kuroba, but…I'd rather die with him, so…do you think you could possibly…?" The Brit's cheeks went red as he looked off to the side in embarrassment.

Kaito sighed again, and with a flick of his wrist and a whip of his cape, sitting where the Kid had been was Kuroba Kaito. "Happy now? I'm impersonating Kuroba Kaito."

"This is the happiest I've been in a long, long time," the blonde chuckled, admiring the magician's beauty.

"Weirdo," Kaito snorted, settling in for the long night ahead of them.

It was quiet for about an hour as both teens contemplated their situation.

"Still doing okay?" Kaito whispered as he felt the detective shift beside him.

"I'm feeling a little numb, actually," Hakuba whispered back. "…Do you think we actually are buried alive down here?"

"…Not sure, really," the magician-thief pulled his knees up to his chest as he cradled the broken arm. "Could be. Could not be."

"The air seems to be getting thinner," the blonde gulped.

"It's just your mind playing tricks on you," Kaito assured, doing his best to sound confident, even though he too had thought that it seemed to be getting harder to breathe.

"Hey, K-Kuroba?"

"Hm?"

"I was thinking…if we really are buried alive and I'm going to die anyway—"

"—I'm going to slug you, if you say the word 'die' again," Kaito growled.

"Just listen," Hakuba choked, crying softly once more. "I was thinking that it would be better if I died sooner rather than later. That way there would be more air for you. Do you have maybe a knife or—"

"—Shut the hell up, Hakuba," the thief hissed. "Either we both get out of this alive or we die here together. Those are the options, understand?"

The detective tried appealing to his classmate's sense of logic. "Kuroba, there are people waiting for you. You'd be sorely missed if you—"

"—Like _you_ wouldn't?" Kaito yelled, the strong urge to slap his companion becoming very tempting.

"Unfortunately, very few people would miss me. I can think of only one person who would be greatly saddened by my passing, and that's Baaya, the woman who raised me," the younger teen replied honestly. "I'm not very close to anyone else, even the rest of my family."

"I refuse to believe, with all the good you've done, that there's not a single other person that would miss you. You've touched so many lives, Hakuba. I'm sure more people than ya think care. Aoko'd be upset, for one. Keiko'd miss you telling your Kid stories, and…I…don't you think for a minute that I wouldn't be absolutely devastated if you died on me."

It was quiet for a minute before Kaito broke the silence again. "You're important to a lot of people, Hakuba. You just don't realize it.… Let's cut the chitchat and concentrate on breathing shallowly, okay?"

The detective nodded.

It was another hour or two (they weren't really keeping track) before anything else was said.

"You okay, Hakuba?" Kaito whispered.

"Actually, I am," the Englishman chuckled. "I was inspecting my wound, and it's really not as bad as it seems. Nothing important seems to be severed. I can still move my toes and all that, so…I think the only thing we'll have to worry about is infection. The rod doesn't appear to be rusty or dirty, so maybe it'll be okay. I don't appear to be bleeding much. I think the majority of the blood on my skin and clothing is from the original puncture. Once I am patched up and go through rehabilitation, I should be able to expect a full recovery; however, it may leave a nasty scar."

Kaito blinked. "Well…you seemed to've calm down quite a bit."

"Yes, thank you," Hakuba laughed sheepishly. "I'm sorry about before; I was a little freaked out by the foreign object jammed in my leg. Honestly, I thought I'd be dead by now, but…that doesn't seem to be the case. Also, the pain killers you gave me are helping a great deal."

"I'm glad," Kaito chuckled, gently patting his companion on the shoulder. "We're going to get out of here, so just keep hanging on, okay?"

Hakuba nodded. "Thank you, Kuroba."

Morale began to drop as the minutes and hours started to trickle away.

After an indeterminate amount of time, they found themselves talking again, just to hear the sound of another human voice, despite logic telling them to conserve air.

"Tell me something you've never told anyone before," Kaito prodded, deciding to fill the uncertain silence.

"I don't like carrots," Hakuba mumbled.

The purple-eyed teen blinked, narrowing his eyes at his rival. "Seriously?"

"Baaya thinks I like them, but I don't. I've never been able to tell her that," the half-Brit explained.

Kaito scooted in closer, stealing body heat while sharing his own. "I'm not really a pervert," he confessed.

"Could have fooled me," the detective snorted.

"Oh, but that's the point," the brunette chuckled darkly. "It's a red herring, and I fool everyone…. What's something else?"

"When I was little, I'd set up a tea party every day with my stuffed animals. We often discussed literature, science, and criminology together," Hakuba said, thinking back to his horribly lonely youth.

"…I like 90's pop music," Kaito giggled.

"That stuff is atrocious, Kuroba." Saguru's eyebrows knitted together.

"I know," the giggles continued, "but I still like it. I belt S Club Seven in the shower."

"I like the Beatles." Hakuba shrugged. "The Moody Blues, ACDC, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith…"

"Really? Hmm…" Kaito smiled gently. "I never would have guessed. You don't really seem the type."

"I'm not really the type that I seem," Saguru confessed.

"Neither am I." Kaito shrugged. "I'm a deeply troubled young man behind this carefree façade of the class clown that I wear."

"I could have told you that," the blonde snorted softly. "The ones that act out like that are usually crying out for attention and help. The kleptomania is another indicator. Why are you deeply troubled, if you don't mind me asking?" Saguru rested his head back against the earthen wall of their prison.

"My father was murdered when I was little," Kaito whispered, letting it resonate for a few seconds before going on. "It broke me, but I didn't want all of the empty words of sympathy and pity, so I put on my poker face and faked it. I'm still faking it. I don't really think I ever grew out of being the sad little boy without a dad…. I'm a nice person, though. I really care about others…that's the real me…. What about you? Who are you?"

Saguru gulped, organizing the words in his head before slowly setting them free. "I pretend to be cocky in order to make up for my lack of confidence. I pretend to be better than others, hoping that some of them will believe it and treat me with respect. I make myself stand out on purpose just so that someone will look at me. I'm lonely, and I want friends more than anything, but I'm afraid of rejection, so I act coldly towards others. I'm a fake."

"You're tsundere," Kaito chuckled. "I bet, on the inside, you're a big softy—real docile and sensitive. You probably still have teddy bears and a weakness for small, cute stuff."

"I didn't make fun of you, jerk," Saguru snorted, trying to cover for his hurt feelings.

"I'm sorry if it sounded like it, but I wasn't making fun of you, Hakuba," the older boy quickly apologized. "Those aren't bad things…. I didn't mean to offend you."

"…So long as you don't call me a wimp, I'll forgive you."

"Wimp, certainly you are _not_," Kaito replied emphatically. "…even if you do collect stuffed animals and knit."

"I do _not_ knit," Hakuba growled. There was a huuuge difference between knitting and crocheting, and it annoyed him to death when people got the two mixed up.

"But you don't deny the rest," Kaito noted.

"Yes, yes, but I don't _knit_," the Englishman grumbled.

"I thought so." The imp grinned. "Well, anyway, I'd never call you a wimp…. I really admire your dedication to your work. You're good at what you do, so don't feel bad about Kid always publicly humiliating you. I think it takes guts to keep getting back on after being thrown off the horse so many times."

"Thank you, Kuroba…I…I admire you too," the detective mumbled, face glowing bright red in the dark.

"Oh yeah? What's so great about me?" Kaito grinned, batting his eyelashes coquettishly.

"Do you have to do that? It makes me feel like a bunch of schoolgirls gossiping about what boys they like." The blush deepened.

Kaito shrugged, too late remembering that doing so was not good for his arm.

"You're very intelligent," Hakuba muttered. It was hard to admit, but since they were going to die anyway… "You're the only one I could call my intellectual…superior…and yet, sometimes I feel like you have rocks for brains. Who jumps off a perfectly good skyscraper, after all?"

Kaito could only snicker.

They lapsed into silence after that, and it seemed as if a long, long time passed. It could have been hours or maybe just one; it was impossible to tell down in the dark.

Kaito felt a little dizzy, and the pain in his arm was getting to be quite unbearable.

The blonde wasn't looking so hot either. His face was tending toward the yellow section of the spectrum. His wound looked fine. The rod was doing a good job of plugging the hole, and it had stopped bleeding, but Kaito had to wonder about the internal damage. Hakuba was shivering.

Kaito took out Kid's cape and wrapped it around them. "Doing okay, Hakuba?"

"No. Very dizzy, actually. Logic dictates that I should have passed out long ago or bled out or something. There should be more pain, but there's not. That's all good, however, I feel extremely dizzy."

"Close your eyes and put your head on my shoulder," the older boy instructed. "You can rest, but don't go to sleep. Keep talking to me."

"What shall we talk about?" Saguru murmured, doing as his rival said without question.

"Hmm…how about…if we don't make it—I said _if_; we _will _make it out of here, Hakuba—would you have any regrets?"

"Of course I would," the detective snorted. "Everyone has regrets."

"What would be the biggest one?" Kaito pressed.

"…It would be that I never got rescued," Hakuba whispered sadly.

"Rescued?" The way he said it told Kaito that his classmate was not talking about getting out of the pit.

"You know how in the stories the princess is always horribly mistreated, but then her fairy godmother or her prince comes and rescues her, and she gets to live happily ever after?" Saguru sniffled softly, trying to hide the fact that he was crying again from Kaito. "Or how there's this kid that's got terrible parents that don't love him, but then someone comes and tells him that those aren't really his parents or he's really a prince or Peter Pan comes and takes him to Neverland or something?"

"Yeah?" Kaito nodded, waiting for the explanation part of the conversation.

"My parents were never physically abusive, but they were emotionally so. I don't think they did it on purpose, but they never had time for me, and they were largely apathetic when it came to me unless they got something out of it too. They were always right beside me when I was getting my picture taken for the newspaper or some magazine article, saying things like 'Our Saguru has always been such a bright boy,' like they knew me…like they had some kind of involvement with me….

"From the time I was very little until around the time I turned twelve, I firmly believed that my _real_ parents were going to come for me. On my birthday every year I'd get all dressed up and wait the entire day for my parents to arrive. I thought that on that day _surely_ they'd come to take me home.

"I used to imagine what they'd look like and how they'd be. My mother would be beautiful and warm and sweet. My father would be strong but kind and very handsome. They'd be a young, impoverished couple with good hearts and a lot of love. I'd look out the window, hoping to see them coming so that I could run out and jump into their arms. I imagined that they'd say, 'Oh, Eric!' or sometimes 'Sean' or 'David' or 'Michael;' I couldn't decide what my real name would be, but it was sure to be something better than Saguru. Anyway, they'd hold me tight and tell me about how they'd been searching for me. Then the five of us—I'd have a little sister, and Baaya, of course, would come too—would go off and live happily ever after."

"Why did you stop waiting for them to show?" Kaito asked quietly, not sure if it was a good place to interrupt.

"When I was twelve, I got into an argument with my mother, and I ended up screaming 'You're not my real mother!' She told me to test our DNA, if I was so sure, so I did. I don't think I've ever cried so much in my entire life as I did that night when the results came back," Saguru chuckled sadly. "After that, I decided that I was really the reincarnation of a fairy prince and that the fair folk would come for me when I came of age. In the meantime, I took up leaving my window unlocked at night so that Peter Pan could get in, sitting out in the field and waiting for a rabbit in a waistcoat to pass by, and trying to force my way through mirrors to get to the other side.

"I stopped believing around the time I turned fourteen. I had started doing science as a way to prove to the world that supernatural beings existed, but…I only ended up disillusioning myself…and yet…I let myself believe that maybe Kid was…it was stupid. I'm done with childish nonsense; I have science now…yet…I do regret not being rescued."

"I think you gave up too soon on the supernatural stuff," Kaito whispered, still trying to process Hakuba's tale. "I don't know about fairies, but I'm sort of friends with a witch. She casts spells and summons Lucifer and can fly and everything."

Saguru blinked, lifting his head and staring wide-eyed at his pit-mate. "That one heist where I had you handcuffed to me, but Kid still came—the one where he flew off on a broomstick—that was…?"

Kaito nodded.

The blonde smiled, setting his head back down on the shorter teen's shoulder. "Thank you. Somehow that makes things a little easier."

"We're not going to die," Kaito insisted, trying to keep up the appearance of optimism.

"What's your greatest regret?" Saguru whispered into Kaito's neck.

"If I die before I complete my mission, a lot of people could get hurt or killed. My father's death will have been in vain too. Also…I never got to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania."

Hakuba had been preparing to say something deep about Kaito's bravery and self-sacrificing heroism, but… "Hershey, Pennsylvania? Why would you want to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania?"

Kaito almost shrugged, but at the last moment he remembered that shrugging = pain = bad. "I really like chocolate. I wanna visit the factory there before I die—like a pilgrimage. Some people go to Mecca; I go to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Wanna come with?"

Saguru blinked. "You know what? Yes. If we survive this, I'm taking you to Hershey, Pennsylvania and buying you all the bloody chocolate you can eat."

"That's a lot of chocolate," Kaito replied pensively.

"I don't care. All the bloody chocolate you can eat."

"I don't like _bloody_ chocolate," Kaito chuckled. "I'm a vegetarian."

"Are you really?" Hakuba laughed too, and the vibrations felt funny on Kaito's neck.

"Except for seafood excluding fish, yeah. I'm technically what's called a pescetarian." Kaito nodded.

"Why not fish?" Even though his eyes were closed, Saguru raised an eyebrow in question.

"They're terrifying," Kaito whispered with a shiver.

"Are you quite serious?" The blonde bit his lip to keep from laughing. "You're scared of fish?"

"Yep. Wanna make something of it?" Kaito challenged.

"No. That's really adorable," Saguru chuckled.

"Adorable? It's downright embarrassing," the ichthyophobe snorted.

"I think it's endearing."

"Well, it's a secret, so keep it to yourself," Kaito chided. "So…got any other big regrets? …Something less depressing please. We _are_ already buried alive, after all. Give me something to laugh at."

Saguru bit his lip. "I…I've never been kissed before."

"Really? A good-looking guy like you?" The brunette made a thoughtful noise.

"Y-You think I'm good-looking?" Saguru gulped, feeling his face grow hot.

"Do you think you're not?" Kaito laughed.

"I-I-I…I don't know…I…I've always thought that I looked funny." The blonde raised his head and turned away in embarrassment.

Thankfully, Kuroba dropped the subject.

"You know, I've never been kissed, either," Kaito admitted. "I've done plenty of kissing on cheeks and hands, but I've never been kissed. I wonder what it feels like."

"I suppose we'll never know," Saguru sighed.

Kaito had a bright idea. "That's not true. We could always kiss each other. Would that be too weird for you?"

Hakuba's brain froze. He looked back and mouthed the words, "K-K-Kiss you? Me?"

Kaito nodded. "You could always just pretend that you're kissing Aoko, if the thought of kissing me freaks you out."

Saguru was dreaming…or maybe he had already died and gone to heaven…it didn't matter. Wherever he was and for whatever reason he was there, Kuroba Kaito was asking his permission to _kiss_ him.

"I…" 'd love to' came to mind, but he didn't want to sound too enthusiastic, too desperate. He came up with: "I wouldn't be opposed."

"Awesome," Kaito chuckled, moving so that he was kneeling, facing his friend. "I've always wanted to try this…well…I wanted to do it standing up on a beach at sunset, but that's a little out of the question. I kind of also wanted to be able to wrap my arms around my partner's body, but…I guess it's the lips that are the important part, right?"

Saguru just nodded, all the while thinking, _"Magic is real, and I'm about to get kissed by Kuroba Kaito. I can die happy."_

"Ready?" the older teen whispered, leaning in.

"Y-Yeah," Saguru stuttered, eyes going half-lidded as he leaned forward as well.

Their lips met in the middle, and Kaito quickly took the lead.

It was a little difficult for Saguru to believe that the other boy had never kissed before; he was a pro—gentle, yet rough all at the same time in just the right ways.

Hakuba let his eyes slide closed as he lost himself in the kiss. All he had to do was follow Kaito's lead and do as bid—part his lips and tilt his head back.

Kuroba tasted like after-dinner mint—the perfect mix of chocolaty sweetness and minty freshness.

It made Saguru worry about what his own mouth tasted like, though such thoughts—any thoughts at all, really—soon faded as Kaito did this wicked little twisting thing with his tongue.

It was all the poor detective could do not to moan as his body positively hummed in pleasure. He wanted to push back into Kaito's lips and kiss back fiercely, but his injuries stopped him.

It was probably for the best. What if Kuroba found out about Saguru's little crush and ridiculed him for it? He didn't want his last moments on Earth to be filled with the same pain and suffering he'd been enduring at the hands of his peers his entire life.

Just when Hakuba thought he'd suffocate, Kaito pulled back and chuckled, "You know, I've never made love either."

"I-I-I'm in no position to help with that," Saguru squeaked.

The magician just laughed. "Chill, Hakuba. I was just kidding…well, sort of…. I liked that. Can I do it again?"

"Y-Yes," the younger boy stuttered, nearly fainting as the class clown pressed his lips to Saguru's once more.

Kaito was bolder with his advances this time, freely exploring Saguru's mouth with his tongue.

Hakuba nearly lost it as Kuroba lightly flicked his tongue against the sensitive roof of the detective's mouth. After that, the blonde willingly submitted to anything Kaito wanted to try.

Sadly, like all great things, it came to an end much too soon, in Hakuba's opinion.

"I _really_ like that," Kaito purred as he gave Saguru's lips one last little peck. "Forget my mission. My biggest regret would now be not getting to do enough of that. What did ya think? You liked it too, didn't you?"

"Mmhm." Saguru nodded with a blush.

_Like_ didn't even begin to cover it.

Kaito sighed, sitting back down next to Hakuba and rearranging the cape like a blanket around them. "That…was nothing like what I expected, but it was everything that I'd thought it'd be at the same time, if that makes any sense. Was it anything like you'd thought?"

Saguru almost said, 'It was a lot like it is in my dreams,' but managed to stop himself in time. "Yes. I'd have to say that it was everything that I'd wanted it to be." He rested his head gently on the shorter teen's shoulder.

After a few breaths' worth of silence, Kaito spoke again. "What's your biggest secret?"

Hakuba bit his lip. "Don't laugh, but…I'm quite squeamish."

"You're kidding me." Kaito did his best to stifle a snicker. "You're a detective, for crying out loud!"

"I know, but…blood and guts make me absolutely nauseated, all the same," Hakuba mumbled, breathing in Kuroba's scent.

"You're actually serious about this, aren't you?" Kaito replied, giving a start. "How the hell do you work with dead bodies when you're squeamish?"

"Lots and lots of practice," the sleuth sighed, feeling a little light-headed again. "It was just something that I had to get used to, since I wanted to be a private investigator. I'm still not really over it, but I can deal with it when I'm on a case. As long as I'm expecting it, I can mentally steel myself. It's a trifle trying, though."

"I'll…I'll bet…" Kaito replied in a daze. "That's crazy….

"Wanna hear mine?" the magician-thief offered a few minutes later.

"I already know yours," Saguru yawned. It was getting harder and harder to stay awake.

"No you don't. Nobody knows my biggest secret," Kaito chuckled, but it sounded rather sad. "My biggest secret is that Aoko and I were never going to happen, even from the very beginning."

"Wh-What?" the Englishman gasped. "But you two are so in love! Are you quite serious, Kuroba?"

"Yep," Kaito whispered. It was actually really empowering to be able to tell someone, after keeping it in all of those years. "I'm not in love with Aoko; I really do only think of her as a beloved younger sister…but…that's not really why Aoko and I are never going to happen."

"Why, then?" What other reason could there be?

"I like boys," the imp whispered coyly into Saguru's ear.

The detective's heart fluttered. "You're…gay?"

"Mmhm."

"_Actually_ gay?"

"Mmhm."

"Really, _truly_ gay?"

"Yep. Why? That make you uncomfortable?" Kaito snorted.

"Y-Yes, but not for the reason you think," Hakuba stuttered, gathering all of his courage.

"Hmm?"

"It's because…because I'm gay too." He finally released it, and the resulting silence was unnerving.

Kaito laughed, and it felt like his heart had just been ripped out and put into a meat grinder.

But then he heard what Kaito was actually saying. "Oh, God, Hakuba. What the hell are we going to do if we really do survive this? The blackmail material we've got would be enough to bury us both again."

"I wouldn't use anything I'd learned," the honorable detective swore.

"I can't help it. My view of you's already been changed by the stuff I found out," Kaito sniggered. "I can't go back to thinking of you as that annoying know-it-all with the cute butt."

Saguru's face went scarlet. "Y-Yo-You think my butt is—?"

The older boy nodded. "I've always thought that you were physically attractive; I just also thought that you were a sucky person…that was before I found out about how much your life blows, though. Now I kind of just want to be your friend and give you a hug or something."

Hakuba bit his lip, but then decided to go for it. "I have a bit of a crush on your appearance as well, but…I too always found your personality rather disagreeable."

"Sounds like we need to start over," Kaito chuckled. "I'm Kuroba Kaito. I run around like a Jack Russell Terrier and act all peppy so people don't find out I'm a sad, broken kid with no dad. I pretend to be a clown and a pervert so that no one suspects that I'm gay. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Kuro—"

"—Kaito. You can call me Kaito," the man himself announced with a grin.

Saguru smiled softly. "Nice to meet you, Kaito. My name is Hakuba Saguru, and I'm sad, lonely, and unloved. All I want is friends, but I don't know how to make them. The pleasure's all mine."

The brunette beamed. "No. It really is mine, Saguru."

They chuckled and whispered back and forth as they snuggled for warmth.

"How long do you think we've been down here?" Kaito mumbled as he concentrated on breathing.

The air was getting thin.

Or maybe it was just his imagination.

"I…don't know," Saguru begrudgingly admitted. "My internal clock's gone a little peculiar thanks to being unconscious and under stress, and there's not enough light to see my pocket watch…. It seems like it's been a few hours at the very least. Maybe three…four."

"It seems like more than that," Kaito sighed.

"We could check on your mobile. Even if it's not getting service, it should still tell time," the Brit suggested.

"I'm not sure I wanna check," Kaito muttered, snuggling closer to his friend. "What if it's only been a couple hours? It seems like it's been forever; if it's only been a couple hours, I'll lose it. Maybe it's better not to know."

"Maybe you're r-right." Saguru struggled to breathe normally. "Kaito, it's getting really hard to breathe."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is, isn't it?" the thief chuckled bitterly. "I'm sorry, Saguru. I'm really, really sorry."

"It's not your fault. It's mine for being so stubborn about catching you," the detective sighed, thinking, _"This must be what it feels like to have an asthma attack."_

"No. It's just bad luck," Kaito stated decidedly. "Saguru…we're probably not going to make it."

"I've been telling you that this entire time," Hakuba snickered. "Do you think we should use the sleeping gas now?"

"…Yeah, but…before that, if by some chance you make it and I don't, tell my mom that I'm sorry. Tell her to tell Jii-chan too. Don't tell Aoko anything; I think it'd be better if she thought I loved her."

"You can tell them all yourself, Kaito," Saguru chuckled. "I know I'm a goner, but…if you make it and I don't, could you please tell Baaya that I loved her? Tell her that I'm sorry for always inconveniencing her and acting selfishly, and tell her that I'm grateful for all that she did for me."

"I think she knows, Saguru," Kaito replied softly.

"Tell her anyway, please."

"I will, if you're not there to tell her yourself," the older teen promised, getting out the gas capsules. "Any last words?"

"Last words?" Saguru cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow in thought. "I don't really have anything spectacular or inspired to say, but…you…thank you. You were one of the best things that ever happened to me."

Kaito blinked, cheeks turning a light shade of rose.

"You were everything I could have asked for in a rival, Kaito…"

"I feel the same about you," the magician chuckled with a small smile.

"…and…I'm glad that it's you," the detective finished with a blush, looking up expectantly.

Kaito grinned. "Yeah…I know what you mean. My turn, huh? I guess…I don't have anything great to say either, but…to use a quote from a great man that's oddly relevant to the situation: 'Goodnight, sweet prince.'"

Kaito leaned forward, pressing his lips to the blonde's once more as he activated the capsule.

"Kaito," Saguru mumbled as he passed out, body slumping forward into Kaito's arms…arm.

"Saguru," Kaito chuckled, shifting his friend's body so that Hakuba rested more comfortably up against the magician.

Kaito sighed before taking a deep breath of the gas. He sighed again, wishing that he hadn't thought to build up an immunity to it.

Now he was, for all intents and purposes, alone, buried alive in a pit.

He settled in, making himself as comfortable as possible as he tried to go to sleep naturally.

It was a little difficult, knowing that he could wake up with a corpse in his arms…that he could wake up only to suffocate slowly and painfully.

He took a deep breath of the scent of Saguru's shampoo and body wash, and somehow Kaito managed to drift off.

000

"I see them!" Someone shouted overhead, rousing the dozing thief.

"Careful with that board! You drop it on them, and you're dead, you $%&*!" That was Nakamori-keibu.

That realization sent a jolt to Kaito's brain. "HIDE ALL EVIDENCE!" it screamed, and Kaito quickly set to work becoming as Kuroba Kaito as possible, getting rid of all traces of Kid.

"I'll go down first," a young woman was saying.

Kaito recognized that voice. It was Chrysanthemum—AKA: Kiku-chan—one of his informants. He had called and texted her since she had been known to perform miracles that had gotten him out of many a pinch in the past. To the best of his knowledge, she was either some government spy or some underworld mob member.

The thief took a deep breath, noting that he could now breathe just fine, and turned to inspect his friend.

By the grace of God, Saguru was still breathing, albeit shallowly.

"Saguru," Kaito called softly, gently shaking his companion. "Saguru, wake up."

The detective groaned, eyes fluttering open. He blinked a few times before his gaze focused on Kaito's face. "Kaito? Are we…are we dead yet?"

Kaito chuckled. "No. We're saved. They're coming for us; how are you doing?"

"Not so well, I'm afraid. I can't feel my leg, but…at least it doesn't hurt. How's your arm?" Saguru gave the thief's body a quick inspection.

"Hurts like hell," Kaito admitted. "I've been doing my best this whole time not to cry like a baby."

"Just a little longer," Hakuba urged, even though he wasn't looking so hot himself.

"Yeah. Just a little longer," Kaito whispered. "You know, we're going to have to explain what we're doing here. Better get our stories straight while we have the chance…unless…you want to tell the truth? I mean…I wouldn't mind, you know…after I almost got you killed."

Saguru snorted. "Oh, shut up. Kuroba Kaito was poking around the Kid crime scene because he's such a big fan, and Hakuba Saguru spotted him and tried to shoo him away. The idiot wouldn't listen and kept coming back, so the detective physically chased him off. They ran into an old, abandoned building; the floor boards cracked, and they were buried alive. The end."

"You're a good story teller," Kaito giggled. "Tell me another."

"Later. Help's here," Saguru whispered, looking up at Kiku-chan being lowered down in a harness.

"Hey, Kiddo," she greeted, quickly analyzing the situation. She winced when she saw the rod sticking out of Hakuba's leg. "We're going to have to have Kei come down and deal with this," she informed the detective. "He's my partner—a medic. I'm Chrysanthemum, or Chrisy, by the way." She turned back to Kaito. "Got anything incriminating on you, Kiddo? Hand it over."

"Just this." Kaito produced that evening's heist, which Kiku-chan took and stuffed in her bra.

"Great. We're gonna take you up first, Kiddo, and then Kei's going to come down and stabilize Goldilocks for transportation, yeah?"

"I'm not leaving him," Kaito stated firmly. "So you go back up and get Kei-san. Don't argue with me, Kiku-chan. We don't have time, and I'm not leaving this pit until I know Saguru's out of here safely."

Chrisy opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it, knowing her verbal sparring opponent. "Whatever you say, Kiddo."

Kiku-chan was pulled back up, and a cinnamon-haired man was lowered back down in her place. He was a little scary with his soulless blue eyes and expressionless face.

Without a word, he set to work, cutting the rod down to size, smearing some ointment on the wounds and wrapping them with proper bandages. "Good first aid, Runt." Kei nodded his approval as he strapped Hakuba into the harness to be pulled up.

"Thanks. Is he gonna be okay, Kei-san?" Kaito asked nervously, getting ready for his turn being lifted out of the pit.

"Yeah. It's best to treat things like that right away, but since it wasn't too long, I'd say the leg is salvageable. The ointment will help a lot," Kei replied in his strict monotone.

"Not too long?" Kaito snorted. "We've been down here for hours!"

Kei blinked twice. "Just one, Runt. Chris was in the shower when you called, but she got your text, and everyone rushed over here as soon as possible. It's been about an hour and some change since you called."

Kaito blinked.

An hour?

They'd been buried for only an hour?

It'd seemed like four or five or six!

Our hero didn't have much time to dwell on it though before he was lifted safely to freedom and then thrown into the ambulance to be carted off to the hospital.

000

A few days after their traumatic, yet enlightening, experiences in the pit, Kaito went to the hospital to visit his former cellmate.

Saguru was looking pretty good considering. The wound on his forehead had healed, and the leg wasn't looking too bad either. Hakuba later told him that Kei-san and Kiku-chan had stopped by to threaten him about exposing Kaito and to give him some healing ointment that actually was really speeding up the healing process.

"Hey," the thief greeted awkwardly from the doorway. "May I come in?"

"Of course!" Saguru smiled, welcoming his former rival warmly. "How are you, Kaito? I see you've got a cast."

Just hearing the detective call him by his first name put him at ease. He hadn't been sure how things would go between the two of them after their shared trauma and divulging of secrets. "Yeah. I'm doing okay. It hurts from time to time, but…I'm doing okay. How are you?"

"Better," Saguru chuckled. "They want me to stay in bed and rest for a few more days before I try to walk on it, but, honestly, it feels fine."

"I'm glad." Kaito smiled softly, setting the flowers he'd brought down on the bedside table and making his way to the chair beside the bed.

"You didn't have to bring flowers, Kaito." The blonde blushed slightly as he admired them.

"I wanted to." Kaito almost shrugged, but remembered not to. "If I were in the hospital, I'd want something to brighten the stark white room."

"That was very thoughtful of you."

Then there was awkward silence, neither knowing how to continue naturally.

"Okay," Kaito finally broke the silence. "So, I know we both thought that we were going to die at the time, but…we kissed."

Saguru blushed, but nodded. "Yes. Yes, we did."

"And, in my opinion, it was _really_ good," Kaito continued, but then paused, as if waiting for Hakuba to confirm or deny his previous statement.

"I-It was," the detective replied nervously.

"And…I think it could have been even better had we had all of our appendages to work with…" The magician paused, biting his lip.

"P-Probably," Saguru gulped.

"Saguru?"

"Yes?" The blonde summoned up enough courage to look at his guest.

Kaito's violet eyes were on fire.

"I didn't kiss you just because I thought we were going to die. It's not like I would have just kissed anyone, you know; I really did want to kiss _you_, and I'd like to do it again. It doesn't have to be any time soon; I'd kind of prefer if we were friends and got to know each other a little better first, but…I like you now that I know you're not really a prick, and I want to kiss you again someday."

"You can kiss me whenever you want," Saguru replied steadily. "I've been physically attracted to you from the start, and…after our near-death experience together…I kind of find myself drawn to you emotionally too. I think being friends first and making sure we actually like each other is a good idea, but…know that I'm yours whenever you want me."

Kaito smirked. "I like the sound of that. I guess it's a good thing we got buried alive after all."

"Seems like it," Saguru chuckled with a blush, thinking, _"Magic is real, and Kuroba Kaito wants me."_

"'I'm yours whenever you want me,'" Kaito hummed blissfully. "That's sexy, Gu."

Saguru blinked. "Gu?"

"What if I want you now?" the imp tittered.

"I'm in the hospital. You'll have to wait," the detective snorted, looking away as his face went wine red.

"When do you get out then?" Kaito grinned mischievously.

"Next week Thursday," Hakuba mumbled, the sound of blood rushing through his ears.

"Wanna get pizza and watch a movie or something at my house? Just as friends?" The little troublemaker smiled innocently.

"If it's just as friends, I suppose that would be alright," Saguru acquiesced.

"Great!" Kaito chuckled, grinning at his new friend.

There was a long bout of comfortable silence in which Kaito stared fondly at the blonde.

Saguru laughed. "What?"

"I was just contemplating if it would be appropriate to kiss you now," Kaito explained. "I mean…I said we should be friends first, and friends don't kiss, but…I want to kiss you."

"If it's just kissing, it's okay, but nothing more than that while we're still 'just friends,'" Saguru reasoned. "I did say that you could kiss me whenever you wanted, after all."

"Yeah?" Kaito perked up.

"Yeah," Saguru agreed, closing his eyes as his lips met Kaito's.

….

ゆ

Mikau: It's a fish! It's really the hiragana character "yu," but I've always thought that it looked like a fish. I tell people that, and some think me a genius. Other's think me mad. The end! So…I hope you liked the story. There were some parts that I really liked and others that I thought could have been better, but all-in-all, I'm satisfied enough with it. Like I said, I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you very much for reading. I'd be grateful if you took the time to send in your comments/thoughts/praise/constructive criticism. Have a wonderful day, and take care everyone!


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